The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012
Located at the intersection of powerful American ideologies, race and xenophobia, dread of disease, and modern sanitation, this study seeks to enhance our understanding of a singular episode in American public health history: the appearance and management of bubonic plague in San Francisco’s Chinatown from 1900 to 1905. Following the California Gold Rush of 1849, Chinatown was repeatedly condemned for its filth and bad smells, which were believed to breed disease. For more than half a century, such discourse heavily tinged with racial prejudice and amplified by a sensational print media, found widespread acceptance. Playing on public anxiety regarding contagion, the periodic rants not only dehumanized an entire population, but motivated local authorities to employ muscular strategies of social isolation, control and removal. Sanitary representations and the employment of stereotypes came to underpin political, economic, and cultural considerations designed to negatively portray Chinese in California, becoming a potent and permanent component of anti-Asian prejudice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: BEFORE PLAGUE
1 “ The People of Tang” in San Francisco
A Migrant From Taishan
Framing Chinese Space
Lifestyles and Governance
Politics and Violence
2 “Guarding Life” and the Way of Death
Wong’s Illness and Folk Religion
Cultivating Vitality
Shelters and Dispensaries
Corpses and Bones
3 Sanitation, Microbes and Plague
Issuing Death Certificates
From Miasma to Germs
Sanitation in Chinatown
Third Plague Pandemic
The Final Diagnosis
4 Officials, Mandarins and the Press
San Francisco and its Health Officials
The Lords of Chinatown
Partner or Foe? The Governor and the State Health Board
“Warriors of Epidemics”: The Marine Hospital Service
“Playing With Ink”: Western and Chinese Journalism in San Francisco
PART II: PLAGUE
5 Early Scenes of Terror: March-June 1900
Roping Chinatown: First Plague Diagnosis and Quarantine
New Deaths: Searches, Vaccinations, and Fear of Detention
“Wolf Doctors” Hunt for Plague
Turmoil: Another Quarantine and aFederal Lawsuit
6 The Siege Continues: June -December 1900
Federal Quarantine of California: A Political Blunder
Valuable Real Estate: Planning Chinatown’s Removal
Plague Diagnoses: A Quarrel Between Experts
Tarnished Image: Plague, Boxers, and Reformers
7 Plague Goes Underground: 1901
Expert Opinion: Adventures of a Federal Commission
Persona Non Grata: The Ouster of Kinyoun
Odd Bedfellows: Joint Federal, State, and City Cleanup
Hide and Seek: Tracking Sick and Dead Chinese Residents
8 Rumors and Realities: 1902
San Francisco Standoff: Mayor versus Health Board
No Plague: “Ostrich” Policies Under Fire
Federal Officials Target People and Rats
“Beating the Tiger”: A Mandarin’s Downfall
9 National Threat: 1903
Is San Francisco Infected? Health Conferences and Railroads
Leaders Under Pressure: A Shift in Health Policies
Real Estate and the Plan to Raze Chinatown
Chinese Cooperation: Joint Sanitary Inspections
10 Sanitarians Claim Victory: 1904-1905
Puppet Show: San Francisco’s New Health Board
Dawn of a Public Health Fraternity
Targeting Rats: Poisons and Demolitions
The Oriental City Project
Pyrrhic Victory
Epilogue
Appendix: San Francisco Plague Cases
REVIEWS
“The author, a well-known historian of medicine long resident in San Francisco, has impeccable credentials to tackle one of the most complex and tortured episodes in the history of American public Health. He does not disappoint. The book provides a clear path to understanding the biological, social, and cultural story of how Northern California bungled its handling of the bubonic plague epidemic of 1900-1904…Using rich documentation from public archives, newspapers, and memoirs, the book also carefully examines Chinese sources, which have been little used to now, to provide a rich analysis of how the Chinese community of San Francisco responded to the scourge they faced.”
“In Plague, Fear and Politics in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Guenter Risse presents a thoroughly researched, nuanced analysis of events surrounding the outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco from 1900 to 1904… This book is more than merely a story of one plague epidemic. It is also a god source for the history of the Chinese immigrant experience in America, early twentieth-century San Francisco politics, and California history… Scholars in a variety of disciplines will find much of interest and avenues for further exploration in Risse’s important book.”
“Guenter Risse offers a fresh perspective on the outbreak of bubonic plague in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Those familiar with San Francisco’s eclectic history will appreciate Risse’s meticulous account of the multilayered, deeply political responses to a disease so closely tied to public anxiety…The strength of this book rests on the use of Chinese language sources to show how Chinatown residents and leaders organized to fight the plague and protect their community…Plague, Fear and Politics delivers a valuable historical lesson by revealing how cultural prejudices hinder potentially beneficial policies to curtail epidemics.”
“Risse’s book is a comprehensive treatment dedicated to this single episode. Second, it places the episode within a transnational context. Third, Risse capitalizes on newly translated texts to better document the Chinese perspective and he unearths new sources to provide a more nuanced assessment of federal officials. As a result, Risse’s Plague, Fear, and Politics in San Francisco’ Chinatown should now be considered the authoritative text on the subject.”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
The Johns Hopkins University Press Blog:
Mapping the Plague in San Francisco's Chinatown, guest post by Dr. Guenter Risse
(with interactive map of San Francisco's Chinatown)